thedrifter
01-09-07, 05:01 AM
Army vets give arm & leg -
but can't get drink
New York Daily News -
The retired New York City Firefighter Flip Mullen tells of an encounter with a 19-year-old soldier named Keith whose only complaint had nothing to do with having lost a leg in Iraq.
"He said, 'I can't get a drink,'" Mullen recalls.
Keith meant he was considered old enough to go to war but too young to go into a bar or a nightclub. He is among some 5,000 G.I.s who were wounded in Iraq when they were not yet 21. Exactly 550 have been killed before they were of an age to have a legal beer.
Which is not necessarily to say the legal drinking age should be lowered. The law has done little to reduce alcohol consumption among those under 21 and indeed may encourage binge drinking because it keeps them from imbibing in "socially controlled situations" such as a licensed premises. But the age limit does seem to significantly reduce drunken driving deaths, especially of the single-vehicle variety.
An alternative would be to institute the same age limit in the military that we have in the NYPD, where a recruit must be at least 21 at the time of appointment. A sign reading "YOU MUST BE 21" could just as easily go up on the wall of a military recruiting station as on the wall of a gin mill.
The problem is, the military presently needs every pair of boots it can muster for an increasingly unpopular war. The need will become all the more pressing if the predictions concerning President Bush's revamped strategy are correct. The 130,000 troops already in Iraq include a good 25,000 who are too young to drink legally or, for that matter, become cops.
Even with the military taking them as young as 17, the recruiting station at Times Square had but a single prospect yesterday afternoon, and he was sitting by the Air Force cubicle. The Marine Corps recruiter was on the phone with his mother. The two Army recruiters looked about as busy as overcoat salesmen this season. They seemed happy to answer a visitor's inquiries regarding his 18-year-old daughter.
"All ages are deployable," one of the Army representatives said.
The Marine got off the phone, and the visitor inquired how the Corps felt about young recruits.
"As a matter of fact, it's encouraged," he said. "By the time they're 21, they're in leadership positions."
One Bronx Marine who did not quite reach the age of leadership was Ramona Valdez. She had a job at the fast-food counter at Liberty Island when the attack on the World Trade Center prompted the government to close the statue to the public. She was 17 when she joined the Marine Corps. She was 20 when she was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq.
Valdez died a year too young to get past the doorman at one of those fun Manhattan nightspots where the police are cracking down on underage patrons, holding some in jail overnight. Had she escaped with just a missing limb or two, she would have gone from surviving an IED to needing a fake ID.
The powers that be are not likely to lower the drinking age, or raise the dying age, but there is one recourse for under-21 Marines and soldiers wanting a drink. They need only seek out premises where a retired or off-duty New York City firefighter is present. The response will almost certainly be the same as when the 19-year-old solider with one leg told Mullen that he could not get a drink.
"I'll fix that," Mullen said.
Indeed, firefighters tend to be surprised when vets return from Iraq without a certain thirst. Firefighter Mike Moran took in a seriously injured solider as part of a program involving the Wounded Warrior Project and a charitable outfit called Greybeard. Mullen reports the following exchange:
Moran: "Hey, Flip, my soldier doesn't drink!"
Mullen: "What?"
Moran: "Yeah, I got no Plan B. I told the wife maybe you ought to go out and buy some food."
Meanwhile, the President is expected to announce tomorrow his intention to send as many as 20,000 more troops to Iraq. That would mean sending some 3,000 soldiers who are too young to enjoy a legal drink but old enough to lose limbs and die in a war Bush tells us is still not lost.
Originally published on January 9, 2007
Ellie
but can't get drink
New York Daily News -
The retired New York City Firefighter Flip Mullen tells of an encounter with a 19-year-old soldier named Keith whose only complaint had nothing to do with having lost a leg in Iraq.
"He said, 'I can't get a drink,'" Mullen recalls.
Keith meant he was considered old enough to go to war but too young to go into a bar or a nightclub. He is among some 5,000 G.I.s who were wounded in Iraq when they were not yet 21. Exactly 550 have been killed before they were of an age to have a legal beer.
Which is not necessarily to say the legal drinking age should be lowered. The law has done little to reduce alcohol consumption among those under 21 and indeed may encourage binge drinking because it keeps them from imbibing in "socially controlled situations" such as a licensed premises. But the age limit does seem to significantly reduce drunken driving deaths, especially of the single-vehicle variety.
An alternative would be to institute the same age limit in the military that we have in the NYPD, where a recruit must be at least 21 at the time of appointment. A sign reading "YOU MUST BE 21" could just as easily go up on the wall of a military recruiting station as on the wall of a gin mill.
The problem is, the military presently needs every pair of boots it can muster for an increasingly unpopular war. The need will become all the more pressing if the predictions concerning President Bush's revamped strategy are correct. The 130,000 troops already in Iraq include a good 25,000 who are too young to drink legally or, for that matter, become cops.
Even with the military taking them as young as 17, the recruiting station at Times Square had but a single prospect yesterday afternoon, and he was sitting by the Air Force cubicle. The Marine Corps recruiter was on the phone with his mother. The two Army recruiters looked about as busy as overcoat salesmen this season. They seemed happy to answer a visitor's inquiries regarding his 18-year-old daughter.
"All ages are deployable," one of the Army representatives said.
The Marine got off the phone, and the visitor inquired how the Corps felt about young recruits.
"As a matter of fact, it's encouraged," he said. "By the time they're 21, they're in leadership positions."
One Bronx Marine who did not quite reach the age of leadership was Ramona Valdez. She had a job at the fast-food counter at Liberty Island when the attack on the World Trade Center prompted the government to close the statue to the public. She was 17 when she joined the Marine Corps. She was 20 when she was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq.
Valdez died a year too young to get past the doorman at one of those fun Manhattan nightspots where the police are cracking down on underage patrons, holding some in jail overnight. Had she escaped with just a missing limb or two, she would have gone from surviving an IED to needing a fake ID.
The powers that be are not likely to lower the drinking age, or raise the dying age, but there is one recourse for under-21 Marines and soldiers wanting a drink. They need only seek out premises where a retired or off-duty New York City firefighter is present. The response will almost certainly be the same as when the 19-year-old solider with one leg told Mullen that he could not get a drink.
"I'll fix that," Mullen said.
Indeed, firefighters tend to be surprised when vets return from Iraq without a certain thirst. Firefighter Mike Moran took in a seriously injured solider as part of a program involving the Wounded Warrior Project and a charitable outfit called Greybeard. Mullen reports the following exchange:
Moran: "Hey, Flip, my soldier doesn't drink!"
Mullen: "What?"
Moran: "Yeah, I got no Plan B. I told the wife maybe you ought to go out and buy some food."
Meanwhile, the President is expected to announce tomorrow his intention to send as many as 20,000 more troops to Iraq. That would mean sending some 3,000 soldiers who are too young to enjoy a legal drink but old enough to lose limbs and die in a war Bush tells us is still not lost.
Originally published on January 9, 2007
Ellie